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Dessert

White Fruit Cake

A cake made with flour, sugar, egg whites, butter, lemon rind, coconut, almonds, citron, candied lemon peel, rosewater, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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White Fruit Cake

Why it works: Coconut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

White Fruit Cake

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  2. Add the rosewater and sherry, then mix in the baking powder and sifted flour.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the mixture.

  4. Finally, add the grated coconut, almonds, citron, and candied lemon peel.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a deep pan with a tube in the center.

  2. Bake for 3 hours in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Butter + coconuttop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,467 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whites of eggs
Whipped to stiff peaks, they trap air that lifts the heavy batter as it bakes.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch and gluten network that sets the crumb once baked.
Butter
Creamed with sugar to hold air and add richness and tender texture.
Sugar
Creams with butter for structure and adds sweetness and gentle browning.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking, helping the cake rise and lighten.
Blanched almonds
Add fat, body and a nutty flavour that keeps the crumb moist.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Stiff whites hold most of the cake's lift, so folding gently keeps the air in; overmixing deflates the batter and yields a dense cake.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, butter, coconut, almond, sherry):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, butter, coconut, almond, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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